The Astro Gemini Screensaver Manager IS faulty :::
I loves the screensaver of the planets and I have encountered a fault ... when this A.G.S.Manager is in use all my Drag'n'Drop failed to work. So I've deactivated the A.G.S.Manager and manually selects the screensaver e.g Jupiter, Mars or Earth to runs on its own then restarts the system, I have no problem with Drag'n'Drop thereafter. I let this runs for over a week without a glitch, to test this for confirmation, I've selected the A.G.S.Manager back to run it and the Drag'n'Drop problems returned. I hope this will help Astro Gemini.
P.s In all of the planet screensavers, the background of the space is in black but in reality it's very deep midnight blue.

AstroGemini.com gets a green from McAfee Site Adviser.
http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/astrogemini.com?ref=safesearch&client_ver=FF_26.6_6265&locale=en-US&premium=false&aff_id=0

I do not know how someone can claim it has a red.
Screensavers are not my thing, but the site appears to be clean.

try http://www.youconvertit.com, it does it online and for free

#57, DarthNinja, you should stick with retail PC's if you can't build one using a 640 MB 8800 GTS which works. My lowly 512 MB 8500 GT (not even an 8600, much less an 8800 or 9800) manages a smooth, stutter-free image greater than 60 FPS 90% of the time, at 1920 x 1440 x 32, only dropping into the 30's when the Sun is in the frame. FYI, there are moons in addition to Jupiter, the Sun, and the starfield, and Jupiter's atmosphere is animated (although artistically, not realistically). I'd post screenshots, if NVidia would ever fix the Vista drivers (screen captures only yield a buffered image of the loading screen).

I turn it on at 720-480-16 (lowest for widescreen) resolution and I got about 150 fps.
I turn it on at 1440-1200-32 (highest for widescreen) resolution and I got less than 40 fps.
I'm using Nvidia Geforce 7200GS.

Conclusion: this should only be use on a modern graphic card. It might save power for the monitor but it'll use lot of power for the graphic card. If you want to learn more about jupiter>thumbs up.
If you want to save power>thumbs down

PS: I too (@ #37) get an Egg shaped view of Jupiter at 1680x1050 res, at 1024x768 however, it looks as it should.

Downloaded and installed the program (yes, program), It uses an (unneeded) loader that trys to connect to the internet (god knows why).

On my 3.5 GHz Core 2 Duo homebuilt gaming PC with a 8800 GTS 640 MB graphics card, I got 60 FPS and heavy stuttering.
After turning VSync on I got the same frame rate with about 1/5th as much stuttering.

On my 2.40 GHz Core 2 Duo Dell Insperon (integrated graphics) I got a whopping 1 FPS.

To require a graphics card that can pull down 50 FPS in Crysis on "Very High" settings to run a screensaver is retarded.

As for the screensaver itself, all it does is rotate the camera around a 3D model of Jupiter set against a star background with the Sun lighting it from one side.
The Music is idiotic as well; it is poorly looped and the clip is short so you can hear every time it loops.

End thought: Overpriced at Free!

#37 your a freekin idiot, and do you know why? VERTICES? On My 8600 Card this screensaver has absolutely smooth vertices and the like so shut your mouth and get a clue as to technologies “REALLY”…

If you would read the comments from the last 20 or so Astro Gemini screensaver giveaways you'll see that for a significant number of users, what he describes is exactly what we get. And for others, high CPU and jerkiness too. Of course you know all about the latter already.

It surprises me that AstroGemini has never taken any of this feedback to heart and fixed these problems. Every screensaver seems like a re-skinning of the same basic engine. Maybe the guy who wrote the original code is long gone and all they have left now are graphic artists :-)

When checking the homepage, I notice that the screensavers that Astro Gemini are sharing with us for free, are their newest or in their lists of top screensavers.

Astro Gemini now has provided screensavers several times for GAOTD that I know of. They deserve some praise for repeatedly being willing to provide GAOTD programs.

One thing I would LOVE to see though, is I would love to see their Screensaver Manager expanded to manage all screensavers on the pc, not just those made by them. I often disable screensavers completely, depending on what I'm working on, and if I could use the Manager to disable, enable, etc any of my screensavers I have, it would increase the usefulness of the screensaver manager by a huge percentage.

For those of you who don't like these screensavers...if you downloaded the ArtStudio, let's see you create even better screensavers and share them here in the forums or freeware categories, etc.

I am one who does appreciate it when ppl making comments, share links to good freeware alternatives. Although my bookmark list of freeware sites and sources is gigantic, I've discovered a few new sources of good freeware by reading comments!

One thing I could use and maybe others could too, is a good bookmark manager, one that can check for duplicates, check urls to see which are expired, and capable of sorting bookmarks alphabetically and categories alphabetically so that they also would load in FF or IE in alphabetical order.

Still hoping someday Brainsbreaker Jigsaw Puzzle will be one of the Game Giveaways!

And I think unless a program really sucks, criticism should be written to be constructive, making suggestions of improvements, etc.

Just bashing programs doesn't accomplish anything positive and I doubt that being bashed encourges software to be donated for GAOTD either.

Although I've seen some junky giveaways, and some software given away whose retail prices were totally unreasonable, and some that wouldn't work because the license kept being rejected by the software maker's reg system, I think that criticism given constructively (such as suggesting that those with crazy high retail prices check the web and compare their pricing to other similar software that's out there, suggesting ways a game could be made more challenging, etc, would prove to be helpful to the software maker. After all, the better someone makes their programs appeal to users, the better it is for the maker's efforts to sell their program.

Giving constructive criticism instead of bashing, might give GAOTD a reputation for being a good place to get fair evaluation of producers software. If GAOTD commenters work to give constructive comments, and GAOTD becomes reputed for fair evaluating, then that may attract more software producers to offer their products for a GAOTD just to get useful evaluations!

Think about it!

OK, all you nit-pickers, so this isn't something NASA would use to navigate their deep space probes with. I still think it's attractive.

However (my own nit-pick), like their "Planet Earth 3D Screensaver", the planet spins/rotates the wrong way, likewise for the general clouds/weather (for most of North America, anyway, weather generally blows in from the West going towards the East, in the same direction as the rotation).

At least on the planet I live the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West, and all movies I've seen of Jupiter's Great Red Spot have it going the other way versus this screensaver:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6060722643679481850&q=planet%20jupiter&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=earth+rotating&hl=en&sitesearch=#

I would think that fixing that issue with both of these nice planet screensavers should be fairly easy, perhaps just some sign changes (from "+" to "-") in the code. I hate to have my kids occasionally seeing these images and getting the wrong idea of so basic a fact as which way the planets rotate.

Otherwise, the animated graphics are rather nice on my system -- thanks!

Did they use IMG2SCR to create this hog? Blank screen/powering down your monitor is the green way to do this task in todays world.

It's fantastic that there is free software for us all to d/load and enjoy. However this screensaver, although a great idea, is just simply a poor product.

I installed it, and it did exactly nothing when I ran it... o well, can't say I'm too disappointed

#37 your a freekin idiot, and do you know why? VERTICES? On My 8600 Card this screensaver has absolutely smooth vertices and the like so shut your mouth and get a clue as to technologies "REALLY"...

Wish there were more varied animated scenes to this but what it does it does very well smooth as silk and "NO Cluggy Blocky graphics here pal.

Peace out.

Site Adviser? Great for newbies, like me 6 or 7 years ago. Rubbish! Rubbish screensaver! Great site!

Here I go again HOY HOY HOY!!!! Like I said yesterday and will keep on repeating:

Please people , look at what is offered here for FREE everyday. If you like it, download,enjoy and give thanks to Giveaway of the day team.

If you dislike, please just don’t download,don’t enjoy and keep your comments to yourselves.

The Giveaway of the day and Game Giveaway of the day team work hard to offer any and everybody FREE don’t forget FREE programs.

By the way all you amateur critics WHY DON'T YOU TRY FINDING AND OFFERING US FREE PROGRAMS(and screensavers).Maybe then you would realise that it's not as easy as you might think.

GOTD is the only site I know that makes me feel like it's my birthday each and everyday.

1- I receive an invitation everyday
2- I am offered a gift that is worth $20 to $50 everyday (2gifts a day on week-ends)
3- I get to share my opinion with other birthday boys and girls

Only party pooper : children that are never happy with the GIFTS they get.

With that off my chest : HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOYS AND GIRLS ! LOL

It would be greatly appreciated if you consider Linux tools, too. The wold is movin away "Widows". Be warned!

The Sun is too big. In the Jupiter area SOL(sun) should be smaller.

#37 - I agree with you. I have a 1920X1200 monitor and it is also a distorted view of Jupiter. Would be nice if they took care of 3x4 vs 9x16 apsect ratios. Uninstalling it.

Personally, I am glad GAOTD is on the ball (on the sphere? the globe?) enough to keep getting free downloads for us to evaulate. I've gotten all the recent Astro-Gemini screensavers / 3D demos (missed Solar System, too bad) and they are not bad at all. They are not astronomically accurate (sun is too big in Jupiter), but they do make a nice change of scene. Just move the files as they said above and ditch the manager.

Thanks GAOTD - I'm sure glad you're working at this! Sometimes the pickings are thin, and sometimes you drop us some real plums, but whether I d/l or not, I'm glad to see your email in my inbox.

Keep it up!

Yeah Erik I support u as well.

Even I checked it and found the same thing.
Whats fishy here?

This is a rather nice screensaver. I like it. The images are smooth and the music is not that bad. But let me guess... some people will see screensaver and will vote thumbs down without even downloading and trying it. We all know the same tired arguments. We know that a screensaver is not needed with today's monitors. The argument is that it is better to just turn off your monitor rather than use a screensaver. That saves on resources. I would suggest that those that feel that way to turn off your monitor before you come here and make your judgements. Save the resources and save us from having to read your tired BS. I like screensaves as do many other users here. Thank you so much GAOTD and to Astro Gemini. This has been a GREAT GREAT weekend of downloads from both sides of the site. That is why I and a great many other users alway return here. You guys rock.

"I’d love to have seen high definition imagery of the red spot and the fine details of the swirling clouds that you see surrounding the red spot."

Stephen : Red Spot doesn`t exist anymore on Jupiter in the presented form. It used to be a huge storm (size of 3 Earths, give or take a few), but during the course of years it consumed most of its energy.

BTW, it`s got completely broken textures on my computer. Should have gotten rid of that historical Core2Duo long ago, I guess, instead of palying Crysis...

I am always amazed, how can somebody release so old-gen gfx, yet it doesn`t run correctly on a decent current gaming machine. From screenshots, it seems that they use basic multitexturing. What could have they messed up there ?

week after week screensavers are voted down, thumbs down by hundreds of down votes, it's obvious users don't like screensavers, but here they are again, for the vocal minority.

Are there people out there who still use screensavers???? That's so 1990's....

On my monitor (1680x1050 pixels), Jupiter is displayed as an egg-shaped ellipsoid rather than a sphere, quite noticeably elongated horizontally and squashed down vertically. The screensaver manager says it is using 1680x1050 pixels, but the displayed result is obviously wrong and does not match the 8/5 monitor aspect ratio.

Further, the disc of the planet is polygonal, with obvious vertices. Not enough straight-line segments were used to approximate a smooth curve.

Ok for free, maybe, but I'd be really disappointed if I had paid $19.95.

IN REFERENCE TO TECHGURL. SITE ADVISOR IS SAYING THEY,VE FOUND DOWNLOADS ON THIS SITE THAT RATED BAD. I Didn't SEE THE SITE ITSELF AS THE BAD ONE. ALSO THE DOWNLOADS LISTED IN THE SITE ADVISOR LIST LOOK LIKE MAYBE STUFF IN THE LINKS SECTION USERS MAY HAVE SENT IN. I Didn't RECOGNIZE ANY OF THE DOWNLOADS ON THE LIST.IVE GOT GOOD ANTIVIRUS AND SPYWARE ADWARE PROTECTION AND MAYBE ONCE IN 50 OR 60 DOWNLOADS HAVE I SHOWN A VIRUS(Probably A FALSE POSITIVE ALSO)AND NEGLIGIBLE SPYWARE . JUST FOR YOUR YOUR INFORMATION.

Rubbish!

cool jupiter looks cool when it a screensaver
well done GAOTD another cool find

ScreenSaver FTW !!!! Nicely done too.

Thx GOTD and devs....

Downloaded and installed wonderfully.
As always Astro Gemini Software and GAOTD has come through again.

Is that Jupiter in the picture or an Egg McMuffin?

Oh I love the screensaver!! Thanks sooo much GOTD!!

Download, activation, and installation was straightforward.
Then I learned that I had downloaded a screensaver manager that left to itself would be downloading weekly updates. I disabled that "feature" and proceeded to test the screensaver.

The display was repetitive and became boring after a few minutes, so I hit the escape key. The display froze. My mouse moved but the system did not respond to it. Control-Alt-Delete failed to bring up the task manager. Even pressing the power button failed to bring up the shutdown menu. I was forced to crash my system by powering it off.

I restarted my system and proceeded to uninstall this POS via its start menu entry. After uninstalling it, I noticed that there was still a start menu entry for the screensaver manager. A quick check revealed that it actually was still installed; moreover there was no uninstall menu item. Uninstallation necessitated the use of Add/Remove programs from the Windows Control Panel.

Next, I discovered that Astro Gemini Software was still using disk space in my Application Data folder. I deleted those files as well. It remains to be seen whether I will discover any additional cruft left behind.

My advice: Don't waste your time (or disk space) with this lackluster piece of bloated bugware.

#1 you have to stop treating things like SiteAdvisor as gospel. I have been to the Astro Gemini website many times. There is nothing dangerous there. It's simply a website that sells screensavers. This is what makes those silly software programs or sites like SiteAdvisor totally useless. Every site that sells something is considered dangerous.

#1: I admit that I am not a fan of screensavers, but I do have 2 made by Astro Gemeni (my wife or kids wanted them). They are quite good. Not accurate enough for Astronomy buffs though. Just eye candy basically. And AG seems to be a reputable company in my book. I have a couple SC made by 3 Planes Soft, which in my opinion makes slightly better screensavers, but the difference is minimal. I tend to think this Jupiter SC would be pretty good, based upon this company's experience with a couple other outerspace screensavers. The only one I have actually seen is the Solar System screensaver, given away here before. So, that is my 2 cents. Oh! Be forwarned, a screensaver manager comes with the screensaver (which I dont like), but can be easily uninstalled in Control Panel.

Sorry, but if you like Astro Gemini and, or 3Planesoft screen savers, you have obviously never seen a good one. They are poor to say the least. Bad give away on Memorial Day GAOTD, real bad!

It very nice work's well but it say Astrol Manger was installed by the other user you need to login under the other user name or install the manger under the current user name,so I need to do this 3 time's,Activate Firewall say need to go out 8 times? to the forums to fix this.by the way Siteadvisor say it good and all download's are good at http://www.astrogemini.com/

#1, Techgurl, which site are you talking about, GOTD or Astro Gemini? Because of linked sites, not the GOTD or Astro Gemini websites themselves, SiteAdvisor has given both dangerous ratings. This issue has been covered a million times. There are a large number of website rating services. I would never use WOT, because, among other things, it rates via user feedback. That's like using the comments here to rate websites. All decent website rating services rate both GOTD and Astro Gemini as safe.

OK the moden day PC does not really need a screensaver nowadays, but some folks like them.

If you're going to install one then Astro Gemini is one of the best.


It should also be noted that Astro Gemini Software give GAOTD "New" screensavers not some old software that don't sell anymore. Respect.


Thanks Astro & GAOTD

Wow. I am a big fan of planets and Jupiter is one of my favourites. Sadly, I have yet to visit it. This is a good second option tho. Thanks Go team!

This is an addendum to my previous comment. If you move the .scr file and the .dll to the C:\Windows directory, the screensaver will run and will not interfere with those residing in C:\Windows\System32.

This program installs an older version of Bass.dll (2.0.0.12) in the Windows\Systems32 directory. The version installed by some of the other AstroGemini products is (2.2.0.4). The older version is not compatible with Dinosaurs 3D Screensaver and the newer version is not compatible with planetJupiter 3D Screensaver, so I suppose it is one or the other.

This is another great screensaver coming from Astro Gemini Software and GOTD. It may not be exact, but who's perfect. You can see a few moons around it, but like the Earth screensaver, no planets can be seen between Jupiter and the Sun. Mercury revolves around the Sun pretty fast, so I would think at some point you should see at least a little dot in front of the Sun. The music has an ancient Egyptian feel to it. Other than that, it is a nice thing to look at once in a while.

... and a nice side effect of their savers: they keep the CPU warm: a nice care tool for it. A well done Global_Computer_Warming contribution, you see. ;)

What about making savers yourself (windows screensaver -> schow pictures .. - or e.g. using IrfanView´s ability to produce .scr-files; seem this too old fashioned?)

Theres no reason why someone who really wants a screensaver won't like this but its not my cup of tea!

Techgurl - Siteadvisor gives GOTD a dangerous rating as well - which is a joke (and its high time they updated their info). I have never had any problems from Astro Gemini when d/ling one of their products from here (and they have been very accommodating when I have asked for help). The warning is probably based on their added screensaver manager which is annoying, yes, but not the end of the world (didn't they stop including that? Can't remember for sure..).
Stephen, aka whiterabbit - is it really that bad, LOL? Coming from a spacenut like you, erm.....thats not good. The other planetary savers are really nice, so I had high hopes for this one. Oh well!

hg

And a nice side effect: it keeps your CPU warm : a nice care tool for it. A well done Global_Computer_Warming, you see?!

you can tell its the weekend..another screensaver..but thats okay, thanks anyway for all you do GAOTD..I know there will be whiners, but hey, this world is made up of All sorts of people..some that enjoy life, and those that want to complain about the little stuff, and just want to make the world shytty...
thanks again GAOTD...